Today I had a little taste of universal health care [View All]

[RoseMead]

A little background:

My husband has two daughters from two previous relationships. He has legal custody of one and de facto custody of the other one (mother left when she was two and is content to see her a couple of weekends a month). We are low income, but in the past we haven't had medical cards for the kids, because the older one was covered on her mother's insurance and the baby had a medical card through her mother.

Over the past year, mom with insurance lost her job (and thus insurance) and mom with the medical card moved to another state. So for the first time, we are dealing with the kids' medical cards ourselves.

Today, I took older daughter to have her eyes checked and order new glasses. The last time we did this it was on her mom's insurance, complete with co-pay. While we were in the waiting room, younger daughter's former kindergarten teacher was also there, taking her son for a check-up. She was at the window sorting through different insurance cards she had - one wasn't taken by the doctor, another she wasn't sure included her son, and so on. It took her several minutes just to get that sorted out.

We, on the other hand, just handed the medical card to the office clerk, she photocopied it and gave it back to us...and that was it! We didn't even have to stop at the window on the way out. Everything was covered - including two pairs of glasses, and it was the least hassle I've ever had at a doctor's office in my life.

As I left the office, I couldn't help thinking, This is what it's like in Canada. (In general, I admit I don't know the specifics of Canadian vision care.)

Why can't we have this here for everyone? WHY is this too much to ask?

Anyway, just thought I'd share that little story.